Rantz: President Trump was ‘set to go into Seattle’ to end CHOP

President Donald Trump said his administration “was all set to go into Seattle” in order to end the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). His warning to area officials, he said, precipitated Mayor Durkan’s decision to finally end the illegal, deadly occupation.

A source close to the President tells the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH that he “gave Seattle a deadline and was set to go in the next morning when Seattle acted.”

Trump had previously focused on the chaos in Seattle’s CHOP zone where armed activists, including Antifa, took over a six-block radius in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. While they temporarily created an area that abolished policing, the CHOP security was unable to offer suitable protection. There were two gun homicides, leaving two Black teens dead, an attempted rape, arson, and countless assaults and skirmishes.

President @realdonaldtrump told @seanhannity that he informed area officials that he was ready to take CHOP back from Seattle activists. A source close to the President tells me this played a role in Mayor Durkan acting.

READ: https://t.co/J2UJVAD8Yp pic.twitter.com/SGqA2Z1hyW

— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) July 10, 2020

Trump took on CHOP

In an interview with the President on FOX News, host Sean Hannity said he heard from a source that the President was ready to make the move. The President called that rumor “100%” true.

“We were going in, we were going in very soon,” President Trump explained. “We let them know that and they, all of a sudden, didn’t want that. So they went in before we got there. But we were going in very shortly, very soon, and we would have taken CHOP … very easily.”

Though the President did not explain the specifics of the plan, he did offer plaudits to the National Guard for their work in Minneapolis.

“We were all set to go into Seattle. Frankly, I looked forward to it,” Trump said.

Previously, at a campaign speech in Oklahoma, the President called out “radical Left” Governor Jay Inslee for losing control. He said he offered to “straighten out” the CHOP in “one hour or less.”

Trump was serious, says source

A source close to the President told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH that some “advisers inside the White House had said to just leave the Democrat cities [alone], but POTUS is concerned about protecting the American people from this lawlessness.”

After the administration gave notice, the source believes the mayor then acted because she “didn’t want to give him credit politically for restoring law and order.”

“Democrats try to pretend [the President is] just tweeting and doing nothing, but that could not be further from the truth,” the source explained. “He is keenly aware of his constitutional options and is fully committed to restoring law and order where Democrats refuse.”

Trump made local headlines last week when the father of 19-year-old Lorenzo Anderson, who was shot and killed at the CHOP, said he received a call from the President.

“I still ain’t heard from the mayor … incredibly, Donald Trump called me,” Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr. told Q13 FOX at the time. “The President of the United States called me today. He gave his condolences, and me, I’m not a political guy. I told him, ‘Nobody likes you.’ You know, I’m real. But on this camera, I’ll tell you, Donald Trump called me and he didn’t have to call me. He didn’t have to do anything.”

Update from the Mayor

Let me be clear: Neither the President nor anyone in the White House ever contacted me to send federal forces into Seattle. This illegal action would have been rejected.

— Mayor Jenny Durkan (@MayorJenny) July 10, 2020

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